Canada’s Brass Camel return on April 15, 2026 with their self-titled third album — an independent release co-produced by Kevin Comeau (Crown Lands) and mixed by none other than Terry Brown, the man behind the desk for some of Rush‘s most definitive recordings. That name alone signals intent: this is a band stepping into a larger frame, and the music confirms it. Recorded primarily at Chalet Studios in Uxbridge, “Brass Camel” is the first record built entirely from the ground up by the current lineup — a creative milestone the band regard as the closing chapter of a loose trilogy, following “Brass” and “Camel” with a title that quietly announces their arrival at a fully formed identity. Where “Camel” leaned on the expansive architecture of extended compositions, this new record channels that same compositional ambition into tighter, more purposeful structures. The result is an album that feels simultaneously more focused and more adventurous — a harder balance to strike than it sounds. “You’ve Got Time” opens the record with immediate authority. Built on asymmetric time signatures and a distinctly Seventies-rooted harmonic sensibility, the track establishes the band’s coordinates without hesitation. The guitar and keyboard voicings interlock with precision, the rhythm section drives with controlled urgency, and the vocal delivery — alternating between incisive lead passages and layered choral textures — carries a weight that calls to mind the dramatic intensity of the Van der Graaf Generator school of Prog. The track builds through several distinct phases before resolving in a measured crescendo that feels earned rather than imposed. “What Are You Going to Do” follows with a heavier centre of gravity. Organ riffs and electric guitar trade the lead in a track that fuses Progressive Rock’s structural complexity with the raw directness of Heavy Rock, the two registers kept in productive tension throughout. Time changes serve the composition rather than demonstrate technique for its own sake, and the rhythm section — locked between Curtis Arsenault‘s Funk-inflected bass lines and Wyatt Gilson‘s elaborately dynamic drumming — gives the track a propulsive elasticity. The instrumental passages open into expressive solo territory from both guitar and organ, while Cat Madden‘s additional vocal contribution adds a further dimension to what is already one of the album’s most compositionally dense moments. “Why Bother” shifts the tonal register toward something more melodically accessible without conceding an inch of compositional craft. There is a lineage here that runs from the melodic intelligence of late-period Supertramp through to the broader terrain of Art Rock — refrains with genuine harmonic depth counterbalancing the more technically intricate verse sections. Dylan Lammie‘s Leslie guitar adds a warmth and spatial quality that lifts the arrangement considerably, and the track functions as one of the album’s most effective bridges between emotional directness and structural sophistication. “Can’t Say We Didn’t Try” is the record’s shortest entry, but it carries its weight without filler. A groove-forward bass line anchors a compact arrangement in which keyboards claim the melodic foreground while the rhythm section maps out a pattern that owes as much to Funk as to Prog. The track moves with confidence and doesn’t overstay its welcome — an increasingly rare virtue. “Ice Cold” brings a sharper, more angular energy to the album’s midsection. The time signatures shift with Zappa-esque restlessness, the sound moving fluidly between Funk, Avant-Rock, and more straightforward hard-edged territory. The vocal performance is among the most dynamic on the record, and the track’s internal logic — seemingly eclectic on first listen — reveals itself on closer attention to be tightly controlled. “Careful What You Wish For” is the album’s emotional and structural centrepiece. Opening from a place of atmospheric depth — sustained bass tones, textural keyboards — the arrangement expands gradually, each element entering with deliberate economy. The vocal performance that follows is exceptional: measured, expressive, and calibrated to the evolving density of the arrangement beneath it. Choral counterpoints emerge in the background, guitar and keyboard lines interweave with evident care, and the track moves through passages of restraint and release — including moments that push deliberately into more experimental terrain — with the assurance of a band entirely in command of its own architecture. “Everybody Loves a Scandal” opens with a baroque keyboard figure that shifts the album’s palette considerably. As the full band enters, the arrangement develops with structural rigour and rhythmic precision, the vocal alternating between ensemble passages and expressive solo lines. The Zappesque influences that surface here are filtered through a distinctly personal lens — the compositional logic is the band’s own, even where the reference points are recognisable. “Catch Us If You Can” is the album’s longest track at 5:41, and its most overtly ambitious. A synth melody of genuine grandeur opens the piece in the tradition of the genre’s classic era, before the full ensemble enters and the arrangement begins its controlled expansion. The track’s extended instrumental section showcases the band’s collective technique without turning into exhibition — the thematic development remains the organising principle throughout. This is the track where the collaboration with Terry Brown feels most tangible: the mix allows each instrument its own space while maintaining a cohesive, warm density that suits the material perfectly. “Last Call” is the album’s most melodically direct statement — a track with clear AOR and melodic Prog influences from the Eighties that acknowledges those reference points without being constrained by them. The arrangement sharpens progressively, and a well-placed electric guitar solo brings the track to a convincing close. “This is Goodbye” closes the record on its heaviest terms. A combination of dense guitar riffing, assertive keyboard work, and a rhythm section operating at full intensity frames a vocal performance that is among the most forceful on the album. The track moves through Dark Prog territory into sustained instrumental passages — synth solos of particular quality — before arriving at a conclusion that is definitive without being final. The appetite it leaves behind is the record’s last, and perhaps most effective, compositional gesture. “Brass Camel” is an album that rewards the kind of attention it clearly received in the making. The thematic ambition embedded in the lyrics — narratives drawn from the Jersey Devil legend, the Titan submersible disaster, the contested territory of AI and creative authorship — is matched by a musical approach that takes the record’s conceptual weight seriously without becoming ponderous. Terry Brown‘s mix gives the material the clarity and analogue warmth it deserves, and the band’s internal chemistry, refined over years of touring and recording, is audible in every arrangement decision. This is the record that definitively answers the question of what Brass Camel are. The answer is precise, confident, and thoroughly their own.
Tracklist
01. You’ve Got Time (04:48)
02. What Are You Going to Do (03:42)
03. Why Bother (04:03)
04. Can’t Say We Didn’t Try (03:16)
05. Ice Cold (03:48)
06. Careful What You Wish For (04:48)
07. Everybody Loves a Scandal (04:40)
08. Catch Us If You Can (05:41)
09. Last Call (04:33)
10. This is Goodbye (05:16)
Lineup
Daniel Sveinson / Electric Guitar, Vocals
Curtis Arsenault / Bass, Vocals
Aubrey Ellefson / Keyboards, Vocals
Wyatt Gilson / Drums and Percussion
Additional Performances:
Dylan Lammie / Leslie Guitar on “Why Bother” and “This is Goodbye,” Rhythm Guitar on “Careful What You Wish For“
Cat Madden / Vocals on “What Are You Going to Do“